Yep, it’s official … the Feds weren’t gonna let Daniel Tzvetkoff get away/offed before his historic UIGEA case made it to trial. Yesterday, as we were half-reporting on this likely development, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan — in New York’s Southern District, of course — was issuing the order over-riding the conditional bail granted by Las Vegas federal magistrate Peggy Leen … (who apparently didn’t get the memo about how serious the Feds were taking this case!)
The reason Judge Kaplan cited for denying bail was “a serious risk the defendant will not appear” as he faces “clear and convincing evidence” against him.
Despite reports to the suggestive contrary, indicted online poker payment processor Daniel Tzvetkoff has not been released on bail. The 27-year-old Australian, who briefly lived the “baller” life of a gray-market money-transfering kingpin, is still in custody in the North Las Vegas Detention Center, awaiting a decision from a federal judge in New York on his temporary fate, according to a Deputy US Marshal in Las Vegas.
As the first ever accused UIGEA criminal, Tzvetkoff faces up to 75 years in prison on multiple fraud and money laundering charges related to his dealings with American online poker players, American banks, and American-friendly online poker sites, including Full Tilt, PokerStars, Absolute, and Ultimate Bet.
Though I don’t fully understand all the jurisdictional details, supposedly the district court in New York trumps any ruling from the federal magistrate in North Las Vegas, who granted bail on the surety of his father’s $1.2 million house in Brisbane and the condition that the elder Tzvetkoff would drive his son to New York where he will be tried.
The Right Network, scheduled for launch this summer, has announced some of the programs that will air on TV, the Internet and mobile devices. One of these programs combines politics and poker in a show called “Politics and Poker”, natch.
Some of the personalities featured in the clip include Tom Wilson (Biff of the Back to the Future trilogy), blogger Andrew Breitbart , and Kristy Swanson (the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer). From the trailer, it appears they’re playing draw poker so maybe holdem is a game for the radical left.
As you may or may not know, our good friends at Wicked Chops and the Heartland Poker Tour have partnered up to find a new TV-hostess for the HPT. Cool American Idol meets Celebrity Apprentice on Facebook-like competition for poker-savvy women who want to look pretty and smart-ish while talking about bustouts.
We were gonna nominate the uber-young Katie for the position — seems like an adorble pre-teen who knows about bad beats and pot odds might be perfect for what the wholesome-Americana-poker Heartland is all about. However, upon learning from WCP that the notorious Ass Girl is a top contender for the job, we’re not so sure any more that this is the place for a child who hasn’t yet learned how to use breasts to her professional advantage.
(Zip it, you sick Wicked Chops readers pervs.)
Anyhow, they’ve got just a few days to go before nominations in this open casting call are closed. From there three finalists will fly to the HPT event at Turning Stone in New York for a May 14 pageant-off.
It really is getting almost eerie the success “mindset” guru Sam Chauhan’s clients are finding at the poker table … not to mention in the MMA octagons. If you haven’t noticed, Chauhan is the non-player who has been showing up all over various poker places of late. He’s currently the subject of the cover story in the April issue of Bluff Magazine (by Lance Bradley), which tells how a guy who hardly knows the difference between suited connectors and a busted flush draw has helped turn around results for Antonio Esfandiari, Paul Wasicka, Gavin Smith, and the ever-tiltable Phil Hellmuth.
But since that story went to press, Chauhan has put up even more impressive results — most recently standing by the side of newly crowned WPT World Champion David Williams. In fact, three of the Top 16 finishers were Chauhan clients, two of whom made it to the final table. (Hellmuth went out on the TV bubble.) Away from poker, he gets credit (at least a small percentage, based on coaching deals we’ve learned about) for helping rising MMA star Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal take the Strikeforce light heavyweight title from Gegard Mousasi, who was a 3-to-1 favorite in the match.
That all kinda blows my theory that the key to Williams’ re-found success had everything to do with his new hair. Check out the video snippet below of a bushy-fro’d Williams stepping outside the Fontana room for some mantra and affirmation exercises before taking his seat at the final table:
Wow, that’s all there is to it? Didn’t realize winning at anything, let alone life, was so easy. Seems like if you could turn that into an iPhone app Sammy might really be able to help people. Chauhan, however, is not without his haters (just ask Google). But poker players know you can only get super-lucky so many times.
If you missed it last week, one of our more astute hirsute co-panelists on The Poker Beat was break-dancing the fine line between news and conspiracy theory in analyzing the changing legal landscape of poker and what it means to the business we all dabble in.
Also BJ and Gary look at actual numbers in comparing/contrasting the WPT to the EPT. All while assessing whether or not PokerStars is taking over the world. Plus Liv Boeree kicking arse as Huff celebrates the glorious life of Gang Starr.
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The PPA isn’t giving up on moving Barney Frank and Jim Goodlatte’s online gambling bills through Congress before (or after) the June 1 UIGEA deadline. In response to their efforts — and perhaps testament to their progress — one of the original UIGEAers Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) has joined forces with his colleague Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) in a letter encouraging all congresspeople to resist any sensible appeal to legalize internet gambling.
They seem to be playing fierce and maybe even a touch dirty. The bipartisan nature of the letter is sure to catch some undecided Congressional eyes — and in it they drop a story about a college student committing suicide after going uber-deep into online gambling debt.
Consider him my new favorite cousin I never knew I had and the newest member of Team Pokerati even though he hasn’t yet picked up his patch. Big props to William Michalski (I think he goes by Bill) from Syracuse, New York.
Michalski is the official winner of Event #15 in the WSOP-Circuit festival going on currently at Caesar’s Palace. In reality there was a 7-way chop. But Michalski did get credit for 1st place and $15k of tournament winnings — making Bill the top Michalski in poker. (The Hendon Mob really needs to include Dream Team in their standings.)
UPDATE: Turns out instead of living in Syracuse he now lives in Las Vegas, having moved here and turned pro just a couple months ago. Am I supposed to have him over for dinner?
More details on the event (and chop) itself in Nolan’s report from Caesars below.
Our beloved Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. is currently seeking buyers for the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, according to Bloomberg-BusinessWeek. Supposedly bids are in the $500 million range for the largest property currently in the Harrah’s portfolio, which has been the home to the World Series of Poker since 2005 … and is considered by many “a dump” on par with Circus-Circus or the Tropicana despite its super-long hallways that make for top-quality scooter races and ridiculous Phil Hellmuth main event entrances.
Seeking confirmation and insight on reports from a highly respected business publication that line up with previous rumors connected to Harrah’s recent acquisition of Planet Hollywood on the Strip, we asked (for real) a WSOP spokesman:
If a sale goes through as desired, what would this mean for the WSOP?
What would be the most likely candidates for a new venue?
Would the WSOP ever consider hosting its summer event at a place that
is not a Harrah’s property?
All he would say is, “The 2010 WSOP will be at the Rio. We don’t comment on rumors or speculation.”
Of course.
However, as a site that traffics in exactly that — and sees plausibly another sign of the impending implosion of poker — we know where to get the real scoop on private megabucks business decisions such as these.
Season 8 of the World Poker Tour concluded Saturday evening with David Williams winning the $25,000 WPT World Championship, defeating Eric Baldwin in heads-up play. Williams collects $1,530,537 for his win, moving him into the top 20 on the all-time tournament earnings list. Shawn Buchanan’s third place finish meant Faraz Jaka became WPT Player of the Year. The full results from the final table:
1 David Williams $1,530,537
2 Eric Baldwin $1,034,715
3 Shawn Buchanan $587,906
4 David Benyamine $329,228
5 Billy Baxter $246,921
6 John O’Shea $199,888
The poker tournament circuit never stops though, as season 6 of the European Poker Tour holds their final tournament the €10,000 Euro Grand Final in Monte Carlo. Live coverage is available over at PokerNews and on the PokerStars Blog.
The longest day of the $25,000 WPT World Championship at the Bellagio took place on Friday, as the remaining 10 players took their sweet time getting down to the televised final table of six. When play finally ended, it was Full Tilt Pro David Benyamine who was the chip leader by just 5,000 chips over David Williams, who eliminated an extremely short stacked Phil Hellmuth in 7th place. Video of that final hand appears below, thanks to a company called All360Poker, which has been filming select tables during the WPT World Championship, including yesterday’s table. It’s a 360-degree camera that shows the entire table, and allows the viewer to click within the image to select a different POV of the action around the table.
[ED NOTE: Video removed because of autoplay]
Here’s how the final six players will be situated when play resumes around 4:30pm PT:
The promotion details two ways to get into their TOC qualifier, either by playing in 100 raked pots between April 15th and June 5th or winning one of the nightly $1 satellite tournaments at 20:00 GMT. The winner of the TOC qualifier will receive an additional $5,000 along with airfare for two from the UK, luxury accommodations at a Harrah’s property, and an additional $2,000 for expenses. The full terms and conditions can be found on the next page:
I think our friends at CardRunners are trying to tell me something. Apparently word of my leaks in PLO are starting to spread around town the world. This week’s required viewing comes from Brian Townsend:
In recent years, the World Poker Tour’s tournaments not held in North America were not televised. This will change for next season’s tournaments, starting with the Grand Prix de Paris at the Aviation Club de France in May, as Matchroom Sport will be producing European WPT events for worldwide television distribution. Matchroom will be looking to add to their success television poker events such as “The Big Game”, “Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge”, “Party Poker World Poker Open”, among other made-for-TV events.
The Season 9 schedule has not been released, but two tournaments in Europe have already been announced, the Spanish Championship in Barcelona May 13th and D’Amneville in France in November.
The Best Low-stakes Game in Vegas* (according to Pokerati.com!) needs help making a better logo for the tables.
The Pokerati Game at the Hard Rock — 1/2 NLH/PLO, starting Thursdays at 7 pm — is really starting to catch on. People are coming in and sporadically asking about it throughout the week, and I’ve had players from the Bike, the Commerce, and the Borgata all inquire about when their hometown poker room is gonna start spreading it — half-and-half the way we like to play it.
Last week was a particularly fun game, thanks to Dan R, a longtime Pokerati reader from Dallas who happened to be in town for an annual Vegas get-together with friends from Chicago who happened to play NLH/PLO round-of-each in their home game.
They wanted to play bigger at 2/5, but I insisted on keeping it small. (I have my reasons. Will explain later.) They all bought in for the $400 max, and several busts and rebuys later, the stacks were unusually big. Once they ordered their second round of Patron, the Vegas vultures uber-nitty low-stakes locals began to swarm, filling up the interest list. We almost made two tables — were just one or two players short. Oh well, maybe soon …
JoeOE18: Had a great session with Deus Ex. Then got to another boss. Contemplating giving up and moving on to something fun. Wish there were cheats. 14 hours ago
